Chad Michael Ward

[Monday] Photo Set: "Mother of the Wasteland"

Added 2015-07-20 14:22:38 +0000 UTC

My work first appeared in Dark Beauty at the end of 2014 as a cover and editorial showcasing my collaboration with body painter Michael Rosner. Editor Topher Adams was so impressed with the images that he asked me to return for a cover and editorial focusing on my on my solo work.

Mad Max: Fury Road was just about to come out and the trailer for it was one of the best and most inspiring things I had seen in a very long time. I knew I wanted to capture that essence in an upcoming shoot.

Enter Nickie Jean, a longtime friend and muse who had recently come back into my life. Nickie and I had been shooting new work when the Dark Beauty cover came up and it was a no brainer to ask her to model for it.

I had the concept, but no wardrobe. I approached my friend Mildred Von, the genius behind the Mother of London brand of clothing. As fate would have it, Mildred had a brand new, never before photographed line coming out and the look would be a perfect match for my post-apocalyptic idea.

We added makeup artist Becca Brassfield of Velveteen Artistry and hair stylist Amanda Lynn Feauto to the team, and headed out to the desert.

A huge fan of the television show Vikings, I wanted to bring some of that flavor to the shoot as well by introducing the braided look, which happened to be Amanda's specialty.

We ended up shooting well over 3000 photos on the day. Sorting through them for submission was a long and arduous task, but in the end, the 25 images in the below link made the cut.

The cover was scheduled to appear in the August issue of Dark Beauty, but Topher was so thrilled with the images we sent over, he bumped us up a month.

Technical Details: Shot with a Canon 7D with 50mm 1.4, 85mm 1.8 and 24-70mm 2.8 lenses. Lit with natural daylight and a large reflector from about 1pm until 5pm.